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Basic Clan Arena guide by Grrrdian

This is not written by me, I'm just posting it here. All credit goes to Grrrdian.

Clan Arena is, as the name implies, a game type that’s meant to be played as a team. The concept is simple: Two teams, with an equal number of players, face off against each other, equipped with all guns and plentiful health, armour and ammo. Last man (well, team) standing is the winner.

Playing CA is not so hard either. Most of this “guide” is really the fundamentals of Quake, and I’m sure many of the experienced players will “have a go” at me for even calling this a “guide”. The fact of the matter is, Clan Arena is not the most tasking of game styles in Quake Live. When compared to Team DeathMatch, Duel and Capture the Flag, the “tactics” and “strategies” in Clan Arena are fairly simplistic. In the words of many critics, CA is “all aim, no brain”. This is true, but only to an extent.

In my opinion, Clan Arena tests the basics and fundamentals of Quake. And so, here are some of those basics that you should know before you step into a serious game of CA. Knowing the Quake community in Australia, many of you will know all these things already, in which case, don’t read. Doh.

Basics:

CA is all about dishing out damage without taking much in return. Every concept of CA is designed to achieve this basic aim.

So, know your weapons!

Use the right weapon for the right situation. This will always result in higher damage dealt. Higher damage means quicker kills, which means you’re taking damage for a lesser duration, which obviously means you’re taking less damage. If the enemy isn’t using the correct weapon for the range, then you can often escape with only minor injuries.

This is a rule of thumb, with very few exceptions: Use railgun at long range, rocket launcher at short range, lightning gun at mid range. Stick to this until you’re so good that you’ve realised that you should stick to this all the time.

For example: Railgun at long range. Spamming with rockets at long range is useless, you will not deal damage (lets be realistic, forget the lucky rocket to the face you got against some newb two months ago), while taking a LOT in return.

Also know how much damage each weapon does. Sort of obvious, but you should also know how many shots it takes with each weapon before an enemy dies.

Enemy will have 200hp, 100 armour. That basically means enemy has 300hp (For first 251hp of damage, armour absorbs 66%, then armour runs out, and remaining 49 hp is all direct). And so:

4 rails to kill, each rail does 80 damage, reload time is 1250ms (1500ms?). After 3 rails, enemy will have the equivalent of 60 hp left. Use rail at long range.

3 rockets to kill, each rocket does 100 damage, reload time is 800ms (0.8 seconds). Straight forward, 3 rockets are exactly enough to kill. There is NO self damage in CA. Splash damage can do a maximum of 84 damage to enemies. Use the new sound command (cg_HitBeep 2) to get an idea of how much splash damage you did. Rockets are weapon of choice for close range.

Rockets are also invaluable for their ability to potentially damage more than 1 enemy at once, to bounce enemies off edges (for example, in a 2v2, if you can bounce one guy off an edge, you can make it a 2v1 battle), to escape enemies by RJ’ing. Remember, you can RJ up to gain height, or RJ horizontally to gain a LOT of speed, very fast. In many cases in CA, RJ’ing can replace the circle jump.

LG does variable damage, depending on your range. As of writing this, its 7-6-5, close-mid-long. I’d say you need to LG someone for roughly 5 seconds in order to kill them, taking into account accuracy etc. LG is the weapon of choice for mid range. Use it at mid range, ignore it at your peril.

Other guns worth mentioning, that can be useful occasionally:

SG, at the moment of writing this article, does 110 damage on a direct hit, with the inner ring doing more damage then the outer. The SG pellets spread is terrible, making it useful for pretty much only close to close-mid range. SG reload speed is 1000ms iirc. SG is slower then RL in reloading, and potentially more erratic in dealing damage, but is hitscan. RL also has the advantage in that you can RJ with it. Personally, I believe RL is better at start of rounds, but at end, SG can become a better weapon, especially because its hitscan, and after you’ve killed the last player on an enemy team, any projectiles they shot before death will not harm you. Also, SG is harder to choke with (for me anyway)

PG is a very hard weapon to master, but is extremely versatile. You can spam it at all ranges, and if it hits, it HURTS. Every hit does 20 damage (!), making PG the hardest hitting weapon in CA, by far and away.

Ok, that’s about all the info that I think every CA player should be aware of. I originally included dps for each weapon, but that doesn’t really say much about a weapon, cause accuracy isn’t 100% for every player. Its no where near 100%, I’d say not even 50% for most weapons.

Again, just reminding: CA is all about dishing out damage while taking a minimum in return. Every concept of CA is designed to achieve this basic aim.

Stick with your team. If you can stick with 1 team mate, and make an encounter 2v1, you will kill twice as quickly, if not quicker, while taking a lot less damage.

I’m sure you’ve all heard “The sum is greater than the parts”. This is very much true in CA. I just can not stress this enough, you will take a LOT less damage if you have team mates around, if only because enemies will die very quickly.

So! Keep your team mates alive so that you can stay alive longer.

Another related concept to the “stick with your team” is that, if someone on your team is camping and solo’ing or rambo’ing, then for all intents and purposes, you are one team mate down. To illustrate, say it is 4v4, on dm6. If 3 of you gather at bridge, alongside 4 enemies, and your remaining team mate goes to pillars (this happens a LOT), then really, for the first 30 seconds, its 4v3. The 3 go down, maybe taking 2 with them, and it will end up being 2v1. The funny thing is, sometimes (repeat, SOMETIMES) the solo player will manage to take down the 2, and everyone on server will say “nice!”, while in reality, it was just an illogical play, more risk than its worth.

So basically, try to meet up with your team mates as quickly as you can in CA, then try to stick with them. If you’re not fighting at start of round while team mates are, you are doing something wrong.

Another thing that’s worth keeping in conscious thought is that, regardless of a players health, the ability to deal damage does not decrease. A player on 1hp can potentially deal just as much damage as someone with full HP and armour. If both are railing, then rate of damage dealt is no different. Their ability to withstand damage is different.

So try to stay alive. If you’re low on health, switch to railgun and assist your team mates from farther back.

Another thing about dealing damage, if you’re low on HP, railgun is your friend. The reason being: you can deal more damage then you can take (if you’re on 1hp, you can give 80 damage, while taking a max of 1 in return), cause you’re low anyway, and because long range sniping with RG is the least risk strategy if you’re low on hp. The player who is tanked has more to lose (well, more to risk) from a RG duel then someone who is very low. On the flip side, if you’re on high hp OR your team has the numerical advantage vs 1 guy (generally low hp), then using SG/LG/RL is probably a good idea.

Scrims related:

Clan wars inevitably end up being a contest of who can team up better. Generally, both teams will gather at one point, hopefully at the same place. Then there is a massive shootout, and the survivors are hunted down.

Now, the thing is, its not just a random shooting. You should be assisting your team, in one of two ways. Either distract someone who is dealing damage to your team mate (ie your team mate is getting bounced by rockets, so bounce the guy who is using those rockets), or more importantly, shoot someone your team mate is shooting. The sooner an enemy dies, the sooner incoming damage is reduced. And no minor reduction, if its 4v4, one enemy killed means a loss of 25% of the enemies firepower. If its 2v2, killing one enemy means you have HALVED your enemies ability to deal damage.

CA pretty much revolves around this concept. And so the best strategy in CA, in my opinion, is to stick together (moment of silence for this profound concept ;p). If you want to move somewhere, make the call on Vent, so that all team mates can go there. Similarly, if you see a team mate RJ up or fall to a lower level, try to support and follow. Make sure everyone on your team knows the importance of supporting. It really sucks when you assume your team will support you, you charge into a room or to a different level, and there is no support.

Some times enemy team will come up with the idea of splitting up and surrounding you. If this happens, just charge one of the pairs. 4v2 will mean its no contest, then you charge the remaining 2.

That’s not to say surrounding the enemy doesn’t work, its just hard to pull off. In my opinion, its better and safer to stick together.

On the flip side, don’t let enemy stick together. Divide and conquer.

Unlikely Example: On qzdm20, your team gathers at little room, enemy at bridge. Enemy decides to attack from 2 sides, one from top and one from bottom (only two ways to hit little room from bridge). As SOON as you hear this, you know enemy team has split. Now if all 4 of you were to charge either direction, it should be 4v2, and you should be able to beat the odds.

An even more improbably example: On qzdm20, your team gathers at bridge, enemy on the other side (heh, nfi what that place is called). After a while, you notice enemy trying to get to little room. Now, if you get lucky, spam can possibly mean enemy splits up, 2 managed to get to little room, 2 still at the other place. Now, you could try this: one guy spams the corridor leading to little room from lower bridge, while other 3 go through tele below bridge, and mop up the 2. Then you deal with the 2 at little bridge.

Pretty dumb examples, but that’s about as good an example as you can give using only text, in order to illustrate the concept of “divide and conquer”.

And my stream of thought ends here. I'm out of "brilliant" revelations on the complex game that we call Clan Arena. Feel free to post constructive criticism, or other random tips and hints.

Wow, didn't noticed someone created such useful guide for CA. Good job, you covered everything worth mentioning. Maybe somehow highlight the teamplay/outnumber 'tactics' in your wall of text :P , as they are most important imho.

- if you know enemy is low on health (or mate is telling you) dont do "rail at long range" (unless u r very good or easy shot). try using mg/sg/pg/lg.
- GRENADESPAM can be very good to block some sections of the map. also use if ur last one alive and run away. just leave some nades behind you
- RULE #1: sometimes its better to run away (use rl to get away fast)

I forgot to add: VERY good to-the-point guide for newbies of ClanArena, Thank You!!!

If i may add two FORGOTTEN CRUCIAL points for newbies starting in ClanArena:
* Do NOT SPAM your teammates!!!! This includes avoiding doorway spam (...ppl do this for security measures, and newbies for the lucky frag/damage!).
example: map is campgrounds (good ole dm6), team has gathered on Bridge, and i am spamming rockets at RL point, moving close to entrance/doorway to avoid getting railed from RG or midlevel-RG-jpad. Then, a teammate decides to spam rocket or plasma in same direction as me to help me, and the spam locking my movement/pushing me into rails from pillars and/or grenade/rocket-spam from RL hideout. I die!
There's nothing more annoying than getting killed because ur escape route is overflown with grenade and rocketspam from friends. This TYPICALLY happens to people who acts as 'tanks' on their teams. Tanks usually offer to go into a room of enemies, trying to breach a lookdown, and they have to be able to get out again very fast, potentially luring enemy to follow them back to the nest of his teammates, all ready to dish out punishment!

Another point (general, can be used in other mods):
* DO NOT BLOCK your teammate! If your teammate is standing directly in front of you, you are obstructing him from being able to go backwards, denying him the ability to move freely to dodge enemy fire! It is YOUR fault if he died! Your teammate has NO CLUE your standing right behind him! So, MOVE OUT!

These two points are very much valid, and they DO make sticking together in rushes a bit more complicated!